How to generate bitcode (.bc file) using emscripten with a cmake project? - c++

I have a c++ project that I built with cmake. It compiles and links fine. The goal is to use Emscripten to generate code from it that will run in the browser.
From the docs on the Emscripten site here one finds:
After running the first two commands (emconfigure and emmake), seemingly successfully, I do not have any .bc file anywhere, although it actually does produce a .js and .wasm file. The docs imply there that the .js file would only result from executing the third command ./emcc.
A little further down on the same docs page you find:
Make generates linked LLVM bitcode. It does not automatically generate
JavaScript during linking because all the files must be compiled using
the same optimizations and compiler options — and it makes sense to do
this in the final conversion from bitcode to JavaScript.
so it seems it should produce some bitcode. How to do this?
(I did use the VERBOSE command as those docs suggest and although I do not see emcc being used instead of the native compiler, em++ is being used, which seems to mostly the same as emcc.)

When the Emscripten build system is used to build a project, it will always generate a bitcode file. This is regardless of the file extension of the default output file. It can't generate a different file, since that would confuse Make, with the file not being created that it was told would be. At the Emscripten website there is a note a short way down the page that says:
The file output from make might have a different suffix: .a for a static library archive, .so for a shared library, .o or .bc for object files (these file extensions are the same as gcc would use for the different types). Irrespective of the file extension, these files contain linked LLVM bitcode that emcc can compile into JavaScript in the final step. If the suffix is something else - like no suffix at all, or something like .so.1 - then you may need to rename the file before sending it to emcc.
Whatever files the build is supposed to create, even ones that are usually shared libraries, will always contain the bitcode, and can be linked directly with the rest of your project.
Edit:
I can only assume that the reason for the .js output file is because the CMake project is set up to produce an executable. It is possible that Emscripten is smart enough to create .js in that case, but I don't know for sure.

From the manpage of emscripten:
The target file, if specified (-o <target>), defines what will be generated:
<name>.js
JavaScript
<name>.html
HTML with embedded JavaScript
<name>.bc
LLVM bitcode (default)
<name>.o
LLVM bitcode (same as .bc)
I assume you can just then create a custom command where the output file has the extension .bc to produce bitcode. Seems like you could just skip the hassle potentially by going straight to producing .js from .c(pp).
Edit:
Alternatively, if you just want it as a side-effect and not the actual product:
--save-bc PATH
When compiling to JavaScript or HTML, this option will save a copy of the bitcode to the specified
path. The bitcode will include all files being linked, including standard libraries, and after any
link-time optimizations (if any).

Depending on the project, you may be able to skip configure entirely. In the past, i've specified C functions to export that my Wasm implementation would then use to quickly build from. Some C libraries require autogen to be run at a minimum, but I have bypassed configure for multi-dependency C projects.
# create bitcode library for WebAssembly module
$ emcc \
-o wasmlib.bc \
-s EXPORTED_FUNCTIONS="[ \
'_needed_c_function1' \
'_needed_c_function2', \
]" \
-I "c_lib_src/include" \
c_lib_src/*.c
# Quickly build using the bitcode we just created
$ emcc \
-o my_wasm_module.js \
-I "c_lib_src/include" \
wasmlib.bc \
my_wasm_impl.c

Up until Emscripten 1.38.x fastcomp you could use the CMake option EMSCRIPTEN_GENERATE_BITCODE_STATIC_LIBRARIES set to ON and static libraries would end up being .bc files:
cmake -Bbuild -DEMSCRIPTEN_GENERATE_BITCODE_STATIC_LIBRARIES=ON
To check, inspected in a hex-editor those .bc files start with BC.
The option was removed (and throws an error) in recent upstream Emscripten versions (like 2.0.x). I still have to figure out, how it's done there.

Related

Add source to an existing automake program

I would like to edit an existing software to add a new source file (Source.cpp).
But, I can't manage the compilation process (it seems to be automake and it looks very complicated).
The software (iperf 2: https://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf2/files/?source=navbar) is compiled using a classical ./configure make then make install.
If I just add the file to the corresponding source and include directory, I got this error message:
Settings.cpp:(.text+0x969) : undefined reference to ...
It looks like the makefile isn't able to produce the output file associated with my new source file (Source.cpp). So, I probably need to indicate it manually somewhere.
I searched a bit in the project files and it seemed that the file to edit was: "Makefile.am".
I added my source to the variable iperf_SOURCES in that file but it didn't workded.
Could you help me to find the file where I need to indicate my new source file (it seems a pretty standard compilation scheme but I never used automake softwares and this one seems very complicated).
Thank you in advance
This project is built with the autotools, as you already figured out.
The makefiles are built by automake. It takes its input in files that usually have a am file name extension.
The iperf program is built by the makefile generated from src/Makefile.am. This is indicated by:
bin_PROGRAMS = iperf
All (actually this is a simplification, but which holds in this case) source files of a to be built binary are in the corresponding name_SOURCES variable, thus in this case iperf_SOURCES. Just add your source file to the end of that list, like so (keeping their formatting):
iperf_SOURCES = \
Client.cpp \
# lines omitted
tcp_window_size.c \
my_new_file.c
Now, to reflect this change in any future generated src/Makefile you need to run automake. This will modify src/Makefile.in, which is a template that is used by config.sub at the end of configure to generate the actual makefile.
Running automake can happen in various ways:
If you already have makefiles that were generated after an configure these should take care of rebuilding themselves. This seems to fail sometimes though!
You could run automake (in the top level directory) by hand. I've never done this, as there is the better solution to...
Run autoreconf --install (possibly add --force to the arguments) in the top level directory. This will regenerate the entire build system, calling all needed programs such as autoheader, autoconf and of course automake. This is my favorite solution.
The later two options require calling configure again, IMO ideally doing an out of source built:
# in top level dir
mkdir build
cd build
../configure # arguments
make # should now also compile and link your new source file

Can GCC compile and run a source code without generating object or executable files?

Can GCC compile and run a source code without generating any output file (neither object nor executable), in a manner that is supported cross-platform? Especially, a solution supported by GCC directly.
I want to avoid generation of any trace file since that is a minor code in a big project. It just messes up the bin directory.
An existing question, here, provides a solution for compiling source code without generating any output file, such as:
gcc somefile.c -o /dev/null
However, this only compiles, and doesn't run.
Another similar question here provides a solution that is specific to Windows OS, not cross-platform.
A simple bash script might help:
#!/bin/bash
echo 'compile... ' $1
gcc $1 && ./a.out && rm a.out
supposed it's named once, then you can do
$ sh once any.c
to compile any.c and just run it once.
You can also make once executable with chmod +x once so you can just type
$ once any.c
Hope it helps ;)
In order to compile and run the C / C++ program and then remove the compiled file, you should add a function to delete the program after it is executed.
Here is a link to an example of a program that deletes itself.
Click Here
In your case (you want to avoid cluttering the build tree), a practically useful solution might be to have some convention about temporary executables.
For example, you could decide that every intermediate executable or file is named *.tmp or _* or *.tmpbin (for temporary binaries) and have some Makefile rules which removes them. Or you could use mktemp(1) in your Makefile to get a temporary file name. Don't forget to remove it later.
Also, most big projects have a compilation step and an installing step (often make install); and if you don't have that you probably should. You want your installing step to avoid installing the temporary binaries or files; with some naming convention this is quite simple: the first command for install phony target in your Makefile would remove these temporary binaries or files.
Also, you generally build in a file tree different of the final bin/ directory, so you could leave the temporary executables in the build tree.
As several people noticed, removing its own executable is easy on Linux (do a readlink(2) on "/proc/self/exe" (see proc(5) for details) then unlink(2) the result of readlink....) but difficult on Windows.
So practically your question is not a very important issue.... (if you use suitable build conventions). And GCC work on files (because it will run ld internally to build that executable file); however GCCJIT is hiding them. AFAIK, you won't even be able to use /dev/stdout as the executable output of gcc (but you can run gcc -x c /dev/stdin to compile C code from stdin). So GCC cannot avoid making an executable file (but you could have it temporary, or in a tmpfs file system or a FUSE one). So you need something external to your gcc command (perhaps simple an rm in some following line of your Makefile) to remove the produced executable.
You could also decide to have (dynamically loaded) plugins (e.g. use dlopen(3) on Linux). Your main program could load a plugin (with  dlopen on Linux) - perhaps even after having generated dynamically its C++ code and having compiled that generated code into e.g. some shared object .so on Linux (or some DLL on Windows), as I do in MELT -, run functions in it obtained with dlsym, and unload the plugin (with dlclose on Linux) and finally remove it. You might use cross-platform frameworks like Qt or POCO to avoid dealing with OS specific plugin code.
For c gcc/g++ filname.c && ./a.out && rm a.out
For c++ g++ filename.cpp && ./a.out && rm a.out

load|use|require a library object file within an Ocaml source file

The Ocaml manual contains an exercise (here) in which library object files are loaded in the toplevel loop (the ocaml interactive interpreter) in the following way:
#load "dynlink.cma";;
#load "camlp4o.cma";;
I'm trying to replicate the subsequent code in a compilable source file, and the code requires the above library object files. Can I load these files with a line of code within the source file and compile it with ocamlc? I've tried "#load", "load", "#use", "use", "#require", "require", and all these proceded by "#directory" and "directory". I know that you can include modules with "include ;;", but this shouldn't work either, because they're just library files, not modules. I've tried to find a way to do this in the manual, but to no avail.
Do I need to reference the files in the compilation command? If so, how do I do this?
Directives starting with a # character are used only in the toplevel and are not strictly part of the OCaml language. In a file that you want to compile, you don't use # directives. See the OCaml manual Chapter 9. The #load directives are for loading a library. When compiling a file, you have to tell the compiler to use the library (on the command line, not in the file). It's good to learn the compiler commands directly at first, but eventually you should use ocamlfind and oasis, which make compilation much easier.
I'm assuming your source is written using extensions implemented by camlp4o. To compile your source, you can say:
ocamlc -pp camlp4o -o myfile myfile.ml
I believe the complexities of the #load command are required only when you want to use the extensions in the toplevel (the interpreter).

Compiling C++Builder project on command line

Is there a way to compile a C++Builder project (a specific build configuration) from the command line?
Something like:
CommandToBuild ProjectNameToBuild BuildConfiguration ...
There are different ways for automating your builds in C++Builder (as of my experience, I'm speaking about old C++Builder versions like 5 and 6).
You can manually call compilers - bcc32.exe (also dcc32.exe, brcc32.exe and tasm32.exe if you have to compile Delphi units, resource files or assembly language lines of code in your sources) and linker - ilink32.exe.
In this case, you will need to manually provide the necessary input files, paths, and keys as arguments for each stage of compilation and linking.
All data necessary for compilation and linking is stored in project files and, hopefully there are special utilities, included in the C++Builder installation, which can automate this dirty work, provide necessary parameters to compilers and linker and run them. Their names are bpr2mak.exe and make.exe.
First you have to run bpr2mak.exe, passing your project *.bpr or *.bpk file as a parameter and then you will get a special *.mak file as output, which you can use to feed on make.exe, which finally will build your project.
Look at this simple cmd script:
#bpr2mak.exe YourProject.bpr
#ren YourProject.mak makefile
#make.exe
You can provide the real name of "YourProject.mak" as a parameter to make.exe, but the most straightforward way is to rename the *.mak file to "makefile", and then make.exe will find it.
To have different build options, you can do the following:
The first way: you can open your project in the IDE, edit options and save it with a different project name in the same folder (usually there are two project files for debug and release compile options). Then you can provide your building script with different *.bpr files. This way, it looks simple, because it doesn't involves scripting, but the user will have to manually maintain coherency of all project files if something changes (forms or units added and so on).
The second way is to make a script which edits the project file or make file. You will have to parse files, find compiler and linker related lines and put in the necessary keys. You can do it even in a cmd script, but surely a specialised scripting language like Python is preferable.
Use:
msbuild project.cbproj /p:config=[build configuration]
More specifics can be found in Building a Project Using an MSBuild Command.
A little detail not mentioned.
Suppose you have external dependencies and that the .dll file does not initially exist in your folder
You will need to include the external dependencies in the ILINK32.CFG file.
This file is usually in the folder
C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\CBuilder6\Bin\ilink32.cfg
(consider your installation location)
In this file, place the note for your dependencies.
Example: A dependency for TeeChart, would look like this (consider the last parameter):
-L"C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\CBuilder6\lib";"C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\CBuilder6\lib\obj";"C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\CBuilder6\lib\release";"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steema Software\TeeChart 805 for Builder 6\Builder6\Include\";"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steema Software\TeeChart 805 for Builder 6\Builder6\Lib\"
You will also need to include the -f command to compile.
In cmd, do:
//first generate the file.mak
1 - bpr2mak.exe MyProject.bpr
//then compile the .mak
2 - make.exe -f MyProject.mak
You can also generate a temporary mak file with another name, as the answer above says, directly with bpr2mak
bpr2mak.exe MyProject.bpr -oMyTempMak.mak

What files are actually included when compiling

I have a very large code, a lot of which is legacy code.
I want to know which of all these files are taking part in the compilation.
The code is written in GNU compilers and mostly in C/C++, but some in other programs too.
Any advice will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Moshe.
I am compiling under linux with a mix of scripts/makefiles. I want to somehow 'wrap' this build with a tool which will give an output of all the source files used in the build, preferably with absolute path names.
What do you say?
If you want to show included headers then whether that's supported and how to do it depends on the compiler.
E.g.,
C:\test> (g++ --help --verbose 2>&1) | find "header"
-print-sysroot-headers-suffix Display the sysroot suffix used to find headers
--sysroot=<directory> Use <directory> as the root directory for headers
-H Print the name of header files as they are used
-MG Treat missing header files as generated files
-MM Like -M but ignore system header files
-MMD Like -MD but ignore system header files
-MP Generate phony targets for all headers
-Wsystem-headers Do not suppress warnings from system headers
-print-objc-runtime-info Generate C header of platform-specific features
-ftree-ch Enable loop header copying on trees
C:\test> (cl /? 2>&1) | find "include"
/FI<file> name forced include file /U<name> remove predefined macro
/u remove all predefined macros /I<dir> add to include search path
/nologo suppress copyright message /showIncludes show include file names
C:\test> _
In the above you can see the relevant options for respectively g++ and Visual C++.
Cheers & hth.,
– Alf
For a given compilation unit, e.g. foo.cpp, add the flags -E -g3 to the call of g++.
This gives you the preprocessed code. There you can look which things are included.
Two options come to mind.
Parse the compilation log
Run a build, save the log, and then search in the log.
Find the files that are opened during the compilation time.
A way to do that might be to use a system tracing tool like strace or library tracing tool like ltrace and then look out for file open calls.
See also How can I detect file accesses in Linux?
How do you build the application? I.e. what do you type at the terminal to build it?
Depending on your answer to (1), find the relevant program used for the build (i.e. make, scons, etc.)
Now find the input file(s) to that build program, like Makefile, SConstruct, etc.
Look into this build file and other build files used by it to figure out which source files go into the build
Here is a technique that finds all include files using make.
It is non intrusive so you don't need to make any changes to files, or even to actually compile. Make will do all the work for you.
make -d
will run make and emit lots and lots of lines describing the inner processing of the make process. The most important is the consideration of dependencies.
Parsing the output it is easy to find the dependencies, and all other files.
Here is a Linux command line that gets a sorted list of directories that contain include files:
make -d | awk '/Prerequisite/ { if(match($2,".(.*)(/)(.*\\.h)",m)) { c[m[1]]++ ; } } END {for(d in c) print "\"" d "\",";} ' | sort
In this case the directories are quoted and a comma is added at the end, so the ouput is ready to be included in Visual Studio Code (vscode) configuration file c_cpp_properties.json
Simple variations can produce the grand list of include dependencies, like so:
make -d | awk '/Prerequisite/ { if(match($2,".(.*\\.h)",m)) { c[m[1]]++ ; } } END {for(d in c) print d ;} ' | sort
This should also work with targets (e.g. make All)